We asked a number of groups with different points of view to give their opinions on how best to tackle road congestion. These views are their own and are presented here unedited to help inform the debate.
Roger King, Chief Executive, Road Haulage Association
The Road Haulage Association (RHA) provides dedicated campaigning, advice, information and business services specially tailored for the haulage industry.
Read Roger King’s views
We need to change the debate.
Those who are against road user charging are accused of lacking foresight and social responsibility. Supporters of this new tax on journeys steer debate towards how it might be introduced - and away from why we might want it in the first place.
Assuming that this new journey tax is practicable, it would nonetheless be complex, intrusive and expensive. Lorry road user charging was promised by Chancellor Gordon Brown in 2001 - but abandoned in 2005 as impractical, after £40m had been spent on consultants’ fees.
We find much evidence, also, that the journey tax would fail in its principle aim of reducing congestion. Far simpler options are available, such as: changes in the hours of employment - local and central government could give a lead here; and greater home working.
Investment must be made to increase trunk road and motorway capacity, to meet existing demand for efficient and reliable transport, with or without a charging system. And at a more modest level, we are frustrated at the lack of progress being made in making relatively minor infrastructure improvements at bottlenecks.
There is scope for a modest degree of road charging: tolling vital new trunk roads in order to secure financing; and local congestion charges where buses and/or trains are available - provided that commercial vehicles are exempt. There is no alternative to the truck, for delivering food and products.
Let us remember that just 15 per cent of tax taken from road users is spent on roads and their up-keep. Above all, let us shift the debate towards ways of reducing congestion - and away from imposing a complex, expensive and large-scale charging system that is simply a tax on journeys.
r.king@rha.net
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